A probe card, when in use, is mounted on a probe device shown in, for example, FIG. 7. As shown in this drawing, the probe device includes a loader chamber 1 carrying a wafer W and a prober chamber 2 where an electrical characteristic of the wafer carried from the loader chamber 1 is inspected, and the probe device inspects an electrical characteristic of the wafer W in the prober chamber 2 after pre-aligning the wafer W in the course of the carriage of the wafer W in the loader chamber 1.
As shown in FIG. 7, the prober chamber 2 includes: a mounting table (main chuck) 3 on which the pre-aligned wafer W is placed and whose temperature is adjustable; an XY table 4 for moving the main chuck 3 in X and Y directions; a probe card 5 disposed above the main chuck 3 which moves via the XY table 4; and a positioning mechanism (alignment mechanism) 6 for accurately aligning a plurality of probes 5A of the probe card 5 with a plurality of electrode pads of the wafer W on the main chuck 3. The probe card 5 has the plural probes 5A, a printed wiring board 5B to which these probes 5A are connected, and a reinforcing member 5D made of metal such as stainless steel, coupled to the printed wiring board 5B via a coupling member 5C, and reinforcing the printed wiring board 5B, as shown in, for example, FIG. 8(a). The main chuck 3 has a lifting mechanism therein to lift up/down the wafer W to electrically connect or disconnect the wafer W to/from the probes 5A.
Further, as shown in FIG. 7, a test head T of a tester is turnably disposed on a head plate 7 of the probe chamber 2, and the test head T and the probe card 5 are electrically connected to each other via a performance board (not shown). The wafer W on the main chuck 3 is set to a temperature within a temperature range of, for example, −20° C. to +150° C., the tester sends an inspection signal to the probes 5A via the test head T and the performance board, and the inspection signal is applied to the electrode pads of the wafer W from the probes 5A, whereby electrical characteristics of a plurality of semiconductor elements (devices) formed on the wafer W are inspected. In a case where high-temperature inspection is to be conducted, the wafer W is heated to a predetermined temperature (100° C. or higher) via a temperature adjustment mechanism (heating mechanism) provided in the main chuck 3, and then the wafer inspection is conducted.
Since an object to be inspected generates heat during the inspection, the printed wiring board 5B of the probe card 5 thermally expands to thermally deform due to the influence of the heat. Further, since the main chuck 3 is heated when the high-temperature inspection is to be conducted, this heat together with the heat generated during the inspection causes thermal deformation of the printed wiring board 5B. Therefore, the reinforcing member 5D has conventionally been used to reinforce the printed wiring board B, thereby reducing and preventing the thermal deformation of the probe card 5. A patent document 1 proposes an art to assign probes to semiconductor elements, which can align tips of probe elements without changing the position of a probe card.
[Patent document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-67953